Vigil Held For Teens Shot, Killed On Christmas Night In Newark

Donna Jackson organizes daily prayer vigils on the streets of Newark.

“We have a 13-year-old girl that will not have the experience of her eighth-grade formal; her high school prom – just cut down,” Jackson said, “and the families are devastated. The community is devastated. We’re all being touched by this.”

As CBS 2’s Steve Langford reported Sunday night, the teens were among five people shot to death on Christmas Day in Newark and neighboring Irvington.

And but for the pair of teddy bears out on the porch of the home on Schley Street in Newark where the teens were shot, you would never know they had died a violent death there on Christmas Day.

“I just want to say I want justice for my son,” said Morman’s mother, Alnisa Reeds. “My son was a good child.”

Reeds was hardly able to speak about her unbearable loss, but was comforted by the support from an entire community under siege.

“We’re going to begin to patrol the streets ourselves,” said Newark City Councilman Ras Baraka.

Baraka demanded more police officers on the streets, while pleading with criminals to declare a cease fire.

“Put your guns down today,” he said. “We’re here to ask you to do that.”

The proximity of persistent violence in the area was punctuated by the grim fact that on Christmas Day, the same day those teenagers were killed, three men were shot to death just a half mile away in Irvington.